Improvisational Comedy for Improvisational Comedy's Sake

“Here’s What I Know” self channeling exercise

HERE’S WHAT I KNOW – One player takes the stage with everyone else in the audience. Audience, with teacher moderating, asks the player very technical or nonsensical or just hard questions. The player presents him/herself as an expert in all areas and is therefore able to confidently respond to all questions.Lessons:• Emotions are always trump – A maniacal laugh. A dismissive ‘pshaw.’ Even an awkward misdirection. All of these non-informative but emotional responses keep a player in control.
• Decisiveness is king – struggling to the right answer is rarely as satisfying as quickly deciding on any answer.
• Commitment is all the sense you need – players can get hung up on thinking through responses that “make sense.” Forget sense. Just make a choice and stand by it confidently. Commitment to making a decision despite sense will make your response sound “right” even if it isn’t and/or it’ll focus the scene on your “wrong” character instead of the Q&A “stuff,” which is awesome.
• Committed, You Can Stand By Yourself – you can be on stage alone for 30 seconds or for five minutes. Commit to yourself. Don’t rely on meeting your scene partner center stage before the scene starts. You can be alone.